


Going home

by ggfj84



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura lives and takes her rightful place, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Season 1-2 paladins get back in their lions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 15:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20854352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ggfj84/pseuds/ggfj84
Summary: Set during "The End is the Beginning" - "We're in this together; we're going to get out together."Written for Shirotember; prompt by Sassafrassrex.





	Going home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SassafrassRex (Serbajean)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serbajean/gifts).

> Special thanks to Sassafrassrex for the prompt: Post-series Keith stepping down as bp, after the black lion (gently, firmly) makes it clear that, now that there's no longer such a need for Shiro to work the Atlas, Black will accept no one else.
> 
> I twisted this a bit to be a fix-it fic from the series finale. Hope you enjoy!

“No,” Shiro asserted as they stood in the Void between Honerva’s mecha and Voltron. “We’re in this together. We’re going to get out together.”

Allura’s hands gripped Shiro’s tightly, pleadingly. “There is no alternative. Only Honerva’s ship can—”

“And Voltron can’t? Atlas can’t?” His own hands shook, along with his voice. “They’ve made from the same ore as Honerva’s ship.”

Her eyes widened, and Shiro felt his stomach tumble. “You—You were going to walk off to your death…_alone_? When all of us together – ”

“You might all die! There’s no guarantee – ”

“That’s our decision to make.” Lance stepped behind Allura; his hand gripped her shoulder. “We’re a team, right? We’re always stronger together.”

Allura’s eyes jumped from Lance to Keith, to Hunk and Pidge. Once she observed their determined, unwavering support, she turned back to Shiro. “It’s not that easy. I’ll – I’ll need to focus. All of you, put her hands upon me.”

Keith’s hand fell upon Lance’s, while Pidge gripped Hunk’s as it rested upon Allura’s right shoulder. Shiro tightened his grip on Allura. No one paid Honerva any mind. Shiro almost forget she was even there, for all his attention was on Allura. As she closed her eyes to focus, Shiro followed suit. 

At first, he heard a distant howl, almost as if he was submerged in water. At the same time, an incessant nudging nipped at his heart. He made a startled noise, attempting to avoid its tantalizing call. But then something tugged at his hands, pulling, demanding, and masked voices joined the howling. They pleaded and yelled, and he remembered this feeling. The paladins had called to him before when he’d been stuck in Voltron’s inner quintessence. They needed his help them, like they needed it now. And he’d give it to them. He’d give them everything.

Memories rose up and overwhelmed him – from when he first opened his eyes in Keith’s shack to the moment Black stole him from the cockpit – to now,here, when they couldn’t go through the void without him.

If the Paladins needed him, he’d always be there.

So he let them in to his soul, or more accurately, he followed their call.

Shiro’s eyes snapped open, and he breathed for the first time, as if he broke the surface. Instead of being in Lance’s void, standing on a glowing purple platform in the middle of a river, he stood in a cloudy but breathtaking white and blue sky. The paladins still surrounded Allura, and each one gave her their energy. Lance glowed ina blue beam of light, Hunk—yellow. Pidge—green. Keith—red, and Shiro – Shiro was purple.

A loud roar shook the landscape, and then, above the white and pink-glisteningA llura materialized the White Lion. It hadn’t died when Honerva opened the portal to seize Lotor and Sincline. No, Honerva had absorbed its essence, and now Allura was setting it free.

Behind Lance now stood a large blue lion, and it came to rest its head upon Lance’s shoulder. Yellow plopped its chin upon Hunk’s head while Green rubbed against Pidge’s hip. Red tentatively came up to Keith and then purred in absolute delight, nuzzling Keith’s cheek.

Shiro’s eyes teared up as he felt a presence behind him, one he hadn’t felt in what seemed like an eternity. Bracing himself, Shiro accepted his lion’s tail about his waist, and then Black’s head ducked under his arms to nestle against his stomach.

Allura smiled and laughed, giddy, then urged Shiro to release her hand. He hesitated to touch Black, afraid to connect with him again, but his lion pushed up, meeting his hand. A purr of pure ecstasy followed as Shiro petted his mane.

So many questions passed through Shiro’s thoughts, but they died the moment he looked up and saw Allura’s eyes glowing an ethereal pink. When she looked up, his soul – his quintessence – followed, and he felt connected—to the paladins, to the lions, to the universe.

_Everything_.

It was familiar, painfully so, and the truth pulsated throughout his being.He’d been a part of Black, a part of the very soul of the universe, so for his sanity, he needed to settle into his own mind once more. He needed to _heal_. 

Black reluctantly let him, even though Black, too, felt as if he lost apiece of himself.

But no longer. They were together, and Black refused to let him go again.

As the paladins’ very essence helped to reconstruct the universe, Shiro experienced every lifetime, lived them all, and though some varied—he flew Red, Blue, and even once White—Black refused to let him stray for long.

Forever passed slowly and somehow, in a blink of an eye. And then Shiro found himself separated once more but not severed from his bond. His back slammed into a chair, and he struggled to breathe. When he finally managed to open his eyes, he wiped his face but failed, his Altean arm missing. Though he mourned its loss, he instinctively knew where it was – on Atlas’ bridge, with its crystal’s owner – because Black purred once more in the back of his mind. Shiro settled into the chair—_his _chair, in Black’s cockpit.

A bleep sounded, and Allura’s concerned face appeared on his screen. “Paladins,can you hear me?”

“Don’t do that, Allura,” Hunk moaned, and his face joined her on Black’s screen. “Don’t separate yourself from us. You’re a paladin, too.”

She was, as Shiro saw the white glow settling into Atlas. The White Lion. They’d brought it back with them.

“Guys.” Keith sounded astonished. “Is that…what I think it is?”

Sure enough, Altea and Daibaazal came into view on Shiro’s screen, with Earth right in the middle of them.

A new being popped up on Shiro’s screen, one Shiro never met personally but undoubtedly knew. “Allura? Paladins…where am I? What happened?” 

Lotor. He was alive. And in the cockpit behind him, Honerva was starting to come to.

Shiro let out a relieved sigh and collapsed back into chair. It was over. It was finally over. He was back in Black, the paladins in their original lion. The universe and all infinite timelines had been saved. 

There was only one thing left to do.

Shiro gripped Black’s controls and called to his team, “All right,guys. Let’s go home.” 

And they did – all of them.


End file.
